Mr. RedfieWs Reply to Dr. Hare. 299 



Art. XIL — Reply to Dr. Hare's Objections to the Whirlwind 

 Theory of Storms ; by W, C. Redfield. 



An article entitled " Objections to Mr. Redjield''s Theory of 

 Storm,s, with some strictures on his reasoning ; by Robert Hare, 

 M. D., Prof, of Chem. in the Univ. of Pennsylvania," which 

 appears in the last number of this Journal, and is also found in a 

 modified form in the London, Edinburgh and Dublin Philosoph- 

 ical Magazine for December, has given occasion for the notes 

 and remarks which follow. 



The several series of facts and observations, showing both the 

 rotary and progressive movement of great storms, which I have 

 published, together with those which have also been adduced by 

 Reid, Milne, Dove and Piddington,* are deemed sufficient to es- 

 tablish the whirlwind character of these storms. In the absence, 

 therefore, of contravening facts of a reliable character, it seems 

 incumbent on an objector to set aside these facts and observations 

 as unfounded and inaccurate, or to show that the results which 

 they appear to establish have been deduced erroneously. This 

 task Dr. Hare has not attempted ; and I might therefore have 

 been excused from replying to his objections and strictures ; as 

 these cannot affect the results which it has been my chief aim to 

 establish. 



But the observations which I have published extend also to the 

 so-called tornado or water-spout, and with similar results :t while 

 Mr. Espy and Dr. Hare have each in turn advanced his the- 

 ory of tornadoes and storms, founded on a priori reasoning or 

 speculation, and on alleged deductions from phenomena observed. 

 Hence, perhaps, originates this fourth attempt, from one or other 

 of these sources, to discredit the results of my principal inqui- 

 ries ; being, however, the first from Dr. Hare. 



* See this Journal, 20 : 20-40; 25 : 114-121 ; 31 : 115-130 ; .35 : 201-223; also a 

 paper read before the Am. Philos. Soc. 1841, (Trans. N. S. vol. 7,) and copied into 

 the present volume of this Journal, p. 112-119. 



Reid on the Law of Storms, Weale, Lond. 1838. 



Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Vol. 14, p. 467-487. 



PoggendorfF's Annalen, Jan. 1841, &c. 



Piddinglon's first and second Memoirs on the Law of Storms in India. Calcutta. 



t See this Journal, Vol. xli, (July, 1841,) p. 69-77. Do. Jour. Frank. Instit. 

 Vol. 3, third series, p. 40-49. 



